Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Pears are in season and great eating at present so a couple of recipes that have been modified from books on hand to cook in the Thermomix.

Although many out there in blogosphere don't like food processors, I will press on with trying to convert you. These pear recipes have been done solely in the Thermomix.

Firstly, a take on an old favourite from a Paul Bocuse cookbook for pears in red wine.

I would suggest a light red such as Brown Brothers Cienna and Cabernet or Dolcetto & Syrah. You don't want a strong gutsy cabernet or zinfandel here, a mild peppery shiraz would be interesting.

Pears in Red Wine

Ingredients:2 pears, peeled, halved and cored and held in acidulated water(water with juice from half a lemon)300 gr red wine300 gr water200 grams sugarjuice of half an orangejuice of half a lemon1 Vanilla pod, split and scraped to release the seeds1 cinnamon stick2 cloves

Method:

Put all the ingredients except for the pears in the TMX bowl. Cook these for 10 minutes at 100°C on speed 2. Place the pear halves in a bowl that easily fits into the Varoma. Pour the mixture from the TMX bowl in to cover the pears. Add 500ml of water to the Thermomix bowl (there is no need to wash it out !!). Carefully place the varoma on top of the TMX.

Set the Thermomix to cook for 15 - 20 minutes (depending on the size & ripeness of the pears) at Varoma temperature on speed 3. You may need to turn the pears during cooking to ensure that they cook evenly and that the wine permeates them completely.

The pears should still be al dente when removed from the Varoma and allowed to cool covered in their cooking liquor. Again make sure that the pears are moved to allow good penetration of the wine mixture.

For service you can slice the pears if you are feeling creative, or turn them belly up and fill the core with cream whipped up in that wonderful machine we know as the Thermomix and Italians call a Bimby (no not bimbo).

4 comments:

Simple idea - best of all you can do it in covered container so no smells from below go into the pears. They have pretty robust flavours anyway. These were cooked while I was cooking rice in the basket and doing saffron pears in a second container - economies of scale.